HomeMy WebLinkAboutNovember 291
Town of Los Altos Hills
Community Relations Committee
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Parks and Recreation Building
1.Roll Call; Committee Membership
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by Chairman, Roy Woolsey. Present: Roger Burnell,
Barbara Cannon, Karen Emerzian, Ron Knapp, Mansour Moussavian, Nena Price, Roy Woolsey. Town
Staff Liaison Sarah Robustelli.
The Committee discussed possible candidates to fill the one vacancy on the Committee. Roy Woolsey
noted that members who regularly do not attend take positions that would otherwise be available to others
and also increase the number of members required for a quorum. For example, only four Committee
members were present for the September 27 meeting, not a quorum with the current nine Committee
members but which would have been a quorum if the Committee had just eight members, i.e., if one of
the non-attending members had been an associate member instead. Such members might better be
converted to associate member status per provisions of the Town resolution on Standing Committees.
2.Introduction of Any Members of the Public. Kjell "Shell" Karlsson, who commented on some
agenda items.
3.Review of Prior Committee Meeting Minutes. The minutes of the October 25, 2016 Committee
meeting were approved, with the insertion of the draft Stanford event picnic flier and a reference to it in
the text of the minutes.
4.Review of Prior City Council Meetings. Roy Woolsey gave Council Liaison Courtenay Corrigan’s
report: She and Michelle Wu were elected to four-year terms on the Council, and either Roger Spreen or
Garo Kiremidjian will fill the third available seat, once recounting of ballots is complete. New Council
members and a newly-chosen Mayor will take office at a Council meeting on December 15, after which
there will be a reception at Town Hall to which Committee members are invited.
5.Welcoming of Town Newcomers. Roy Woolsey reported that 17 names of newcomers from
September and October were e-mailed to Town Hall in a format that could be directly printed on a sheet
of mailing labels for mailing of the newcomer welcoming letter.
6.Committee involvement in Forthcoming Town Events. Sarah Robustelli reported on the barn
lighting, chamber music and caroling events. She is handling arrangements for these three events, and
does not need active support from Committee members.
7.Planning for April, 2017 Special Event at Stanford
Roger led a detailed discussion of a proposed architectural tour of new buildings on the Stanford
University campus, which would tentatively be held on Sunday afternoon, April 9, 2017. Roger will need
to coordinate with multiple offices at Stanford to arrange the event. There should be a hospitality table at
some central place, where refreshments would be served at the conclusion of the building visits, and
appropriate signage to direct attendees. Nena Price and Karen Emerzian offered to help with food, and
Ron Knapp with beverages. Sarah said that staff could include the event in the Town’s registration
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website and help with name tags for those who register. Sarah can include the event in the next issue of
the Los Altos Hills Activity Guide, provided she has copy by the press deadline of December 21, 2016. It
was moved, seconded and approved unanimously to appoint Roger as event chair for this event, and
authorize him to proceed with arrangements with Stanford and produce a description of the event for
publication in the Activity Guide.
8.The Los Altos Hills Town Picnic
Sarah Robustelli will e-mail Roger Burnell a duplicate copy of her Picnic report, and then Roger will
complete the report for the 2016 Town Picnic. The Committee agreed that the 2017 Town Picnic should
be on the first Sunday in June as usual – June 4. Sarah said that since this is the 20th annual Town Picnic,
the event will be featured on the cover of the Activity Guide. She is gathering photos of picnics through
the years, and would like to include statistics on attendance, which Roy said he could provide for the early
years of the picnic. Roy will also generate for Committee review a draft picnic proposal and a checklist
of tasks for the 2017 picnic for Sarah to indicate which tasks the Town will handle. Roger Burnell will
bring a list of possible entertainers/attractions to the next Committee meeting. Some members of the
Committee thought that the registration mailer should be reviewed and perhaps freshened up a bit, since it
has been almost identical from year to year.
9.Review and Discussion of Committee Charges and Duties
The Committee held a lengthy discussion of its charges and duties. Regarding welcoming of
newcomers, the Committee might consider holding a welcoming reception for newcomers to meet other
Town residents and to provide an additional social event for the Town, perhaps in September at the
beginning of the school year; past events were held at Morgan Manor, the Fenwick residence, and at
Town Hall itself, but low attendance of newcomers was generally a problem with past events. Committee
members have tried personal visitations in the past, such as for delivery of the newcomer packet, but
newcomers are frequently not home and their residences are behind gates. The Committee discussed
“meet your neighbor” articles for the “Our Town” newsletter and Karen Emerzian offered to help with
one of a neighbor could be identified for the article. It was suggested that the mayor should be
encouraged to have periodic meetings with representatives of Standing Committees, for overall
coordination. Roy Woolsey suggested that perhaps the Committee could have a number of
subcommittees to work on individual charges and duties, such as subcommittees for preparing articles for
“Our Town”, welcoming newcomers, organizing special events, etc. It was decided that Committee
members should consider these various points and how best for the Committee to meet its responsibilities,
and continue this discussion in the next meeting.
10.Annual Report from the Committee to the City Council. Roger Burnell will try to track down the
final version of the slide presentation he gave to Council two years ago, since Town files appear to only
have a draft of the presentation. Nevertheless, the 2016 picnic report and 2017 picnic proposal and
Stanford event proposal may provide sufficient reporting to Council for the near future.
11.Additional Items or Contributions from Committee Members. None.
12.Date for Next Meeting and Adjournment. The next meeting will be the fourth Tuesday in January,
which is January 24, 2017. The meeting was adjourned at 8:57 PM.
Minutes prepared by Roy Woolsey, December 4, 2016